213 comments:

Weiner... the man who gave us the most surreal and awesome press conference of my life, when Breitbart took the stage after the "hacked" excuse fell apart. I think it was the same one where, after Weiner finally got on stage, he had to then apologize to Breitbart.

Shame we couldn't have ended on that comic example of his failure, and he had to drag out.

Anyway, I am sure that Hillary's judgement that her emails as SoS should have gone onto his laptop that probably had more viruses in it than even were splooged all over the screen, remains beyond question.

Okay, what did Huma Abedin, but also the Clintons see in this man that they wanted him as part of The Machine? Was he really that good at hiding his proclivities (which I doubt)? Or, was he happy to play along as a patsy, perhaps as an "apron" (a male equivalent of a woman who's a "beard" for a gay man) for Huma Abedin, knowing that he'd be able to screw around & he'd be taken care of by the Machine?

May God have mercy on Abedin's & Weiner's innocent child! What a total mess to be born into!

"Okay, what did Huma Abedin, but also the Clintons see in this man that they wanted him as part of The Machine?"

This is a very good question. He was in the machine, arguably, before the Clintons were - they were upstarts from Arkansas. He had important backers in the NYC machine. He was Chuck Schumers protege since the 1980's. I guess his marriage to Huma Abedin was a sort of dynastic alliance.

"Carlos Danger"is a pathetic perv who can expect no quarter from civilized society for the rest of his days. It should be illegal for him to have a "smart phone" unless it has a filter on it to keep his likely targets safe from his predations. What kind of people are these who associate with the 'wiener?' These are strange people indeed including those who voted for him. The exact opposite of MAGA. More like MAWA as in make America worse again as he was finally roped in, so to speak.

"Hard time" isn't the only thing the Post stooped to. "'This was a serious crime. It’s a serious crime that deserves serious punishment,' Manhattan federal Judge Denise Cote said as the convicted sext fiend dropped his head into his hand and wept." Surely I'm not the only one who sees double entrendre in "dropped his head into his hand."

No Anthony Weiner fan, but this doesn't really seem like a jailable offense to me. I know there are legalistic issues of "consent" when it comes to a minor, but is a 15-year-old really that much different than an 18-year-old in terms of sexual maturity? She could have easily blocked him or refrained from contacting him but was obviously titillated (if also a bit weirded out). Horrific judgment and pretty bad boundaries, but a crime worthy of prison time? Not so sure.

The professional politician is a strange beast. Communities of such beasts naturally congregate based on their own factions. Wiener was a prominent figure in NYC Dem politics. He was a heavily trafficked node in a network of influencers, money raisers, and various and sundry big donor business people. In this sense, Wiener marrying Abedin was like the two feudal scions of great houses (House Clinton and House NYC Democrat) marrying to cement power.

If not, he should take his 21 months and life of leisure with the money he's already made, and graciously bow out of public life. Lots of other people have sexted under age people and had their lives ruined; he's still going to live better than 90+% of America, which is better than 99+% of the world after he gets out.

ut is a 15-year-old really that much different than an 18-year-old in terms of sexual maturity?

It's not sexual maturity we are talking about, nor are we talking about here doing a little petting with a boy of a similar age, we are talking about a grown man, a man famous on account of the power that the people of the United States of America bestowed on him by electing him to Congress, that grown man and a 15 year old girl.

Maybe I am an old prude, but I have no problem with his prison time coming out of my tax money.

Possibly. I agree he married for political reasons, and perhaps the suggestion came from Schumer or whoever else was influential in that NY mafia. It was Schumers protege marrying Clintons protege, a uniting of the houses.

Most political marriages are risky on the matter of personal satisfaction.

More likely is he didn't have the funds to set up a proper mistress to deal with his personal needs. In France it would all probably have gone better.

Usually when you marry a lesbian, there are some benefits to the man. Lesbians being women, and so liking dick on occasion. Copious blow jobs were definitely in order. I guess they were not forthcoming.

It's not sexual maturity we are talking about, nor are we talking about here doing a little petting with a boy of a similar age, we are talking about a grown man, a man famous on account of the power that the people of the United States of America bestowed on him by electing him to Congress, that grown man and a 15 year old girl.

But, in fact, we are talking about sexual maturity. If she were 18 (2 years and some months later) when these conversations were going on, there'd be no crime. Statutory consent laws make sense for pre-pubescent children who clearly do not have the sexual maturity to consent to any such behavior, post-pubescent adolescence is a fluid period of time and law has to necessarily draw a legal line somewhere. I don't really think it's a crime that calls for jail time, regardless of what I think of Weiner personally.

Okay, I get that maybe he wasn't getting sex from his wife, but what I don't get is why go for underage girls? As Donald Trump pointed out -- crudely, as is his wont -- there are plenty of legally-aged women willing to put out for a guy who is a celebrity, even if only a minor celebrity. You just have to grab them ...

Weiner and Huma had the Jewish/Muslim thing going. They were being groomed for stardom, he the outspoken prog, she the Clinton crony. Perfect. Then it all fell apart. Turns out, their sexual lives were as empty as their politics. And these people aspire to rule us.

@Farmer, I do get fed up with people trying to minimize underage sex. If she were two years and some months older, then yes, no problem. But so what? The line has been drawn and you violate it at your peril.

"I don't really think it's a crime that calls for jail time, regardless of what I think of Weiner personally."

-- I'd be open to considering that maybe the punishment of this specific law is flawed, our legal system does a lot of things wrong. But, given lots of other people have received worse for the same or less, my sympathy for Weiner is non-existent.

Weiner's guilty of being pathetic. If he had actually had sex with live women, the Democrats would be claiming i t's nobody's business. The fact that he had all this power and was reduced to having phone sex leaves him beneath everybody's contempt. (I actually believe Huma would have been less humiliated had Weiner been having an actual affair.)

It is true that he texted pictures to a minor, and this is of course a crime that he can and has been convicted off. But he sent that minor nothing she couldn't see with a few keystrokes on the Internet. This is a crime, because it allows society to feel it has someone it can convict for being a pervert, now that nearly everything that had been considered perverted is (and for the most part should be) legal.

But, in fact, we are talking about sexual maturity. If she were 18 (2 years and some months later) when these conversations were going on, there'd be no crime. Statutory consent laws make sense for pre-pubescent children who clearly do not have the sexual maturity to consent to any such behavior, post-pubescent adolescence is a fluid period of time and law has to necessarily draw a legal line somewhere.

It's a democratic republic. We had the relevant votes, the laws were made. I am fine with them, you are not. You go ahead and run for office on your position that 15 year old girls aught to be fair game to anybody with an internet connection. I'm not buying it. Won't vote for you.

@Farmer, I do get fed up with people trying to minimize underage sex. If she were two years and some months older, then yes, no problem. But so what? The line has been drawn and you violate it at your peril.

The point is entirely academic. Age of consent should probably be lowered. Yes, Weiner committed a crime. That is not in dispute. I'm just discussing the punishment, and I think it's outsized to the crime. That is all.

Luckily I'm not trying to advance a political campaign, just an argument. What people would vote for or not is irrelevant to me. And yes, by and large, I think 15- and 16-year-olds are sexually mature enough to consent to sexual activity. Many in states in the country have age of consent laws of 16, for example.

“I engaged in obscene communications with this teenager,” Mr. Weiner said, his voice high and shaky, and his body trembling. Those communications “included sharing explicit images and encouraging her to engage in sexually explicit conduct,” just as he had done with adult women, he said.

Maybe having had teenage daughters, I am not as passionate for the rights of dirty old men as you are J.

Oh please. Sexual activity and even marriage in mid-adolescence was common all over the world for millennia. Was this being perpetrated by "dirty old men?" Have teens undergone some kind of sexual regression in the last 150 years or so? Assuming you lost your virginity before age 18, did you feel coerced and manipulated into it, or did you agree to it of your own volition?

Back in the day Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid looked at the "kids" (those two are so old that anybody under 65 looks like a "kid" to them) in the Democrat Congressional delegation. They selected Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Anthony Weiner as their designated attack dogs for the Democrat party. Thye were in fact, very good at attacking. In the thinking, morals and ethics department, they came up a little "short". (I'll leave the "short" riffs about Weiner to Laslo).

But there is one problem with attack dogs---in the fray and battle, they sometimes turn rabid. There are of course different kinds of "rabid". Weiner lets Little Tony hang out for all the world to see. Debby Ding Dong cheats with the DNC and hires Pakistani IT guys who hack all the Dems computers--again for all the world, or at least ISIS and the Russkis to see. One of these two is a pervert--the other is simply a moron. Or maybe both are morons.

This is not his first time in the underage corral. How many chances do y'all think he should get?

Not one more.

I don't feel a bit sorry for him. He's a politician, a crooked one. When Brietbart broke the story, the Democratic Party and the media lined up against the truth-teller.

Several times Weiner has done this with girls. The law is clear on this, just like it's clear when gay men lose their livelihood for having sex with young men.

We cannot let those who have the money and power to evade the consequence of their acts set the standard for those who do not have those cushions. Remember, in drug dealing, the rich get rehab, the poor go to jail.

I'm reminded of when Norman Mailer got Jack Henry Abbott out of prison because he was more valuable as a writer than as a common crook. Abbott then went out and stabbed a Puerto Rican waiter in an argument over using the restaurant's bathroom.

Mailer shrugged and said it was worth the risk for art. Of course, he didn't take a knife in the gut for his beliefs, some poor guy working to raise his family did.

I'm actually unclear what Weiner actually did. Why does the media leave us to speculate? Some articles say he "sent obscene messages." He pleaded guilty to a single count of "transferring obscene material to a minor."

What makes a message obscene? Would the message have been obscene had he sent it to an adult?

We're adults, so why can't the media provide a description of the obscene message? Is it the words in the text that were obscene, or is it a (single?) photograph that was obscene?

Oh please. Sexual activity and even marriage in mid-adolescence was common all over the world for millennia.

So was slavery. To be fair, when your life expectancy is in the 40's, you need to have children while young.

Was this being perpetrated by "dirty old men?"

Not exclusively, but it played a role.

Have teens undergone some kind of sexual regression in the last 150 years or so?

Yes. We have infantilized our young in the West. The problem isn't 14 year olds having sex with 14 year olds. The problem is adults preying sexually on the young, which is a major problem today even with statutory rape laws.

Anthony Weiner and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are in a class by themselves when it comes to being annoying, setting my teeth on edge, coming across as hideous caricatures of human beings . . . I find them so unbearable, it goes way beyond—orders of magnitude beyond— what I experience with any other politician. (And I'm talking about how they affected me before they got into their relatively recent difficulties.)

I feel for the guy for sure. He's a sad soufflé of narcissism and compulsion and self destruction. There has to be an awful tangle of something in his life experience to have created such a messy, damaged person. Like any addict, I'm sure he despises himself.

There was no internet 150 years ago, and I am not sure what social purpose is served by assorted perverts contacting 15 year olds on the internet, who have no interested in them further, and convincing them to commit pornagraphic acts for a camera.

Do you really think that happens any more? Do you think that Weiner will be on a chain gang breaking rocks? Seriously, someone tell me what hard labor he'll have to do. Will he be chained together with colored men, breaking rocks on some road project?

The problem is adults preying sexually on the young, which is a major problem today even with statutory rape laws.

Oh, I don't think the problem is anywhere near "major." Most statutory rapes occur between people in their mid-teens and people in their early 20s, and that's just calendar age. It does not say anything about the intellectual or maturity level of the participants. Nearly a third of all statutory rape cases involve a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Also, the part about living to your 40s is not entirely accurate. The increase in life expectancy over the years has a lot to do with improvements in infant mortality rates rather than simply living longer.

But to not get los in the morass, everyone here agrees with age of consent laws. It's where exactly the line is drawn that matters. Is a 15-year-old having sex with a 20-year-old less bad than with a 25-year-old? A 30-year-old? Etc.

It was clear from the outset that Weiner wasn't all there. The video from 2010 is the sort of thing you just have to sigh and shake your head at and wonder what is wrong with this individual that he can be so self-righteously unhinged. Not that we ever could have guessed what is actually wrong with him.

I do feel sorry for the Weiner also. Of course what he's done is despicable and he needs to serve the time for it. But who knows why he is the way he is? I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn he was molested as a child. It happens a lot of people, and there is a distinctive pattern to the effects.

Is a 15-year-old having sex with a 20-year-old less bad than with a 25-year-old? A 30-year-old?

Yes and yes. Once she turns 18.... but I know, we. read all about it in Lolita, once they are that old, they lose their allure. Which is part of the problem. Young women need to be protected from men who are only interested in them because they are sexually attracted to children. What is in it for the child?

There was no internet 150 years ago, and I am not sure what social purpose is served by assorted perverts contacting 15 year olds on the internet, who have no interested in them further, and convincing them to commit pornagraphic acts for a camera.

I think you're confusing two things. I'm not saying that what Weiner did was a great idea or a great way to get your kicks. In fact, I said the opposite. But that's a separate question of whether it should be illegal and if it is illegal, what the appropriate punishment for it would be.

"Stooping to?" Is the hard time joke so low that we say that the DN must stoop when they use it? Is there that much vertical distance between supposed "high humor" and gags which must be stooped to? Does Weiner's predicament deserve more than the double entendre? It is fitting that Weiner's sentencing is characterized using a dick joke. It makes for thematic consistency. Headline writing is not easy. If you can work in a dick joke, it's a bonus!

"The increase in life expectancy over the years has a lot to do with improvements in infant mortality rates rather than simply living longer."

Life expectancy is one of the most misunderstood metrics of all time. If you have a country of two people and one lives to 80 and the other dies at birth, the life expectancy of that country is 40 years. People often think of it as the expected length of a life in a given place or time, but that's not really it. People have been living to old age since antiquity.

I used to go to the Minnesota prison in Stillwater MN to pick up parts for my Minnesota (forget the model #) hay mower. Nobody was, evidently, doing "hard time" there. They had a lot of prison industries, including an agricultural farm, printing (Linotype machines, and old presses). Everything that had a Minnesota brand name on it was made at the prison (farm implements, gravity boxes, and trailers for the highway department. Worked with many a man who learned their trades at the prison. Breaking rocks was not offered there. I doubt if you could find a prison where it was offered.

YoungHegelian said...Okay, what did Huma Abedin, but also the Clintons see in this man that they wanted him as part of The Machine? Was he really that good at hiding his proclivities (which I doubt)? Or, was he happy to play along as a patsy, perhaps as an "apron" (a male equivalent of a woman who's a "beard" for a gay man) for Huma Abedin, knowing that he'd be able to screw around & he'd be taken care of by the Machine?

@tim in vermont:Young women need to be protected from men who are only interested in them because they are sexually attracted to children.

But you are assuming the consequent, if you are saying anyone under 18 is a "child", and that there is some difference-in-kind that makes 18-and-one-day "normal" and 17-and-355-days "perverted".

Biologically teenagers are not children, mentally of course they are not adult. Social norms that don't make allowances for this are going to have tragic consequences, such as those teenagers who send nude pictures of themselves to other teenagers and get convicted for "child pornography".

Like I said, we had a vote, we decided that. It's prison. Any 30 year old who feels the need to seek sexual satisfaction from 15 year olds has problems that said fifteen year old should be spared. Prison.

J. Farmer, ask yourself why Weiner had this prolonged long-distance sexual relationship with a 15 year-old? It's not like there aren't plenty of other people out there.

Adults who go after the young this way are badly effed-up, and they do a lot of damage. I am fine with the age of consent and I think that anyone who believes an adult in his or her thirties should be allowed to seek such a relationship with a 15 year-old is very eff-ed up also. You seem to think that you have a better handle on this issue than the legislatures of 50 states. It seems to me that the burden is on you to prove your point, make your case, etc. A simple assertion just makes you look like a perv. Why are you sure that adults should be allowed to be sexual with adolescents?

There need to be laws of consent because there are plenty of adults who will misuse their adult power with adolescents.

“I was teaching him the wrong things...finally I am teaching him the right lessons, accepting responsibility,” Weiner said.

Accepting responsibility by asking for leniency because he claims he's a sex addict.

In three video chat sessions, Weiner “used graphic and obscene language to ask the minor victim to display her naked body and touch herself, which she did,” prosecutors wrote.

This is more than just him texting dick pics to a minor. It's true that she could have disconnected the calls and blocked him from contacting her, but think about her compliance in regards to the earlier discussion here about how girls don't want to be seen as "mean".

The consent laws are what they exactly because of the argument some posters are making. Is there a 15 year old out there mature enough to consent to have sex. Probably. What about a 14 year old? Maybe. 13 years old...uhhhhh. 12 years? 11 years? 10 years? 9?

The law can only be expected to draw a firm line at one age. If an ADULT can't comprehend that law, and control himself, that's his problem, not the law.

You seem to think that you have a better handle on this issue than the legislatures of 50 states.

As I have said repeatedly, many states in the country, including traditionally conservative ones, have ages of consent as low as 16.

Why are you sure that adults should be allowed to be sexual with adolescents?

It isn't so much what I think "adults should be allowed to" do as it is what I believe adolescents should be able to do. If we agree that 16 have enough maturity and cognitive power to drive automobiles down highways, then I think they probably by and large have the capacity to consent to sexuality. I think sexual relationships between 18-year-olds and 60-year-olds is pretty offed up, too, but I don't think it should be illegal.

There need to be laws of consent because there are plenty of adults who will misuse their adult power with adolescents.

I never said there should not be laws of consent. Everybody agrees that the legalistic line has to be drawn, to a degree, arbitrarily. So, for example, if a 17-year-old high school senior is dating a 20-year-old college sophomore, and they have consensual sex, they may very well have committed an illegal act, though I doubt anyone here would believe some great crime had been committed. And so, obviously, the point is simply about the age of the minor but the age of the person they consent with.

I read in a novel years ago that in prison slang a pedophile is called "short eyes", and a short eyes is not well regarded by the general prison population. I suppose the Weiner is likely to be sent to one of those "country club" prisons, where he'll probably become reaquainted with some lobbyists, lawyers, and contributors from the good old days, and he'll get along fine. But if he should happen to end up in a real prison, he might come out with his problem solved, if you get what I'm saying.

And for the record, "perversion" refers to using something for a purpose other than that for which it was intended. There was a time, when there was a consensus of sorts about the purpose for which sex is intended, but I'm afraid nothing is a perversion any more. Stuff with shoes, maybe.

it would appear some of the NFL players participating in the protests yesterday, got some negative feedback

Didn't hear the specifics about the negative feedback - I'm sure there was some. The real story is probably how much support they received from across the country. People are figuring out the difference between real and fake patriotism, and learning about those who have always tried to exploit people's sense of (genuine) patriotism for their own ends - which often have nothing to do with what's best for the country.

This man's career, and maybe his life in society, are at an end. What can be done with him as an example or as the raw material for a new work worthy of Sophocles or Shakespeare? Would anybody today want to watch or read a tragedy of one undone by smartphone for loving neither wisely nor too well?

Also, in terms of tidying up the loose political ends: would Tony be seen as a liability to the Clinton machine, to the point that he might suffer a tragic fall in the prison block?

If it wasn't illegal, and offenders punished, there would be a lot more lynchings taking place.

I remember a story from Buffalo, NY in the 70s when somebody broke into an apt in the projects there and molested a 12 year old girl, the father chased him down, caught him in a park, and beat him to within and inch of his life. The police had to arrest him, but they took up a collection to make his bail.

He screwed up, got caught, and his wife gave him a second chance. Heck, with the D behind his name, he probably could have turned the page eventually.He squandered his second chance in a significant way with a minor. If you read the stuff he sexted it was graphic and rape-ish.

I keep waiting to hear about Dems' "culture of corruption" or "culture of criminality" or really anything at all about the Menendez trail...weird that the Media doesn't take those kinds of angles with these stories, huh?

I don't understand that stuff but I'm telling ya - a lot of women love it.

That movie with Dakota Johnson didn't sell as well as it did on a fluke.

It amazes me the way male sexuality is pathologized ad infinitum just as a matter of general principle, and then you look at some of the sick shit that most women with a discernible sex drive are into...

Trump admitting, in an obscure interview over a decade ago that some celebrity gold diggers are easy-- definably different from "you might want to put some ice on that". or maybe in proggy mind-flip land, it's not.

J. Farmer - none of them have 15 as the age of consent, though, so what exactly is your point? This is about an adult inducing a 15 year-old to engage in highly sexualized behavior, an adult sending explicit sexual material to a 15 year-old, etc.

And you are saying that this should be legal. The citizens of the US do not agree with you.

The burden on you is to explain WHY you believe this man, or any other adult, should have the right to engage in such behavior with an adolescent of this age?

As to the driving thing - well, most states don't hand out full licenses to 16 year-olds, much less to 15 year-olds, and it is legally accepted principle that adolescents do not have full adult mental capacity.

Here is a list of US state driving license rules. Find me one that hands out non-restricted licenses to 15 year-olds?

TTR - Some women do like it. This was a teenage girl. Maybe this teenager liked it, at first, until it got creepy and rapey. Perhaps after a while, she thought it was too much. In any case - she squealed. oops. Lesson - keep your text pecker and your pervy domination thoughts to yourself and go pay attention to your son.

Not only will Weinie not do hard time, but he'll be placed in administrative segregation, and will not have contact with the general population. The reason being that if he was with the general population, someone would do him in. That's called bad public relations for the screws, and they are well aware of the facts of life.

I also think that the prison he will be sent to, more than likely, doesn't even have murderers and rapists... there.

If he intentionally sought out a 15-year old (let alone 15-year olds in general) and wasn't just catfished, then he's obviously got problems. But then again, what J Farmer says is right. Biologically we evolved to breed at puberty and that was that, but waiting an arbitrary 5 year minimum is a social norm for good reason that has to be respected by the elder perverts.

I don't doubt he's remorseful. Plus, the guy looked like liverwurst. Just absolutely ugly. I realize this is supposed to matter less to women but maybe it put a challenging wrinkle into the sort of behind-the-scenes tail-chasing that better, er, positioned famous men are supposedly capable of easily and as frequently taking advantage of.

I saw the documentary. I don't know what the tells are for his specific perversion, but he seemed sane and personable. What makes a man indulge in such weird,self destructive behavior. I would love to know the real inside story of his marriage, but it will never be known. Whatever you read about it will be a lie vetted by PR experts........I don't think the fifteen year old girl will be traumatized by the experience. Apparently swapping naked pictures is part of the teen age courting rituals. The present is to me a very foreign place..... He did something wrong, but the heaviest damage fell on him and his family. Was his real fetish masochism?......People enjoy sex, but even more they enjoy disapproving of other people's sex lives. There used to be so many perversions you could disapprove of, but now we're down to just pedophilia. He's guilty of the one perversion that we can all publicly express moral indignation about. Moral indignation is a great pleasure and comfort. We should thank Weiner for bringing us all together and for helping defeat Hillary. Trump should pardon him...... . How much kinder the world would have treated him if he had been a furry. Yore not really cheating on your wife if you dress up as the Easter Bunny whilst fucking,

He's pretty stupid. Either he really is a perv - and it sounds like that's the case, or I half-believe that he had this whole thing with wanting to see what he could get away with. A lot of sexual adventure has that inherent element. But you gotta leave the kiddies alone. That's just messed up. I used to hear "locker talk" from guys all the time talking about teenage girls. I didn't get it. I guess this was in my thirties. I thought to myself that even twenty-something females seemed too immature for me by that point. Then again, there's something to meeting someone when you're both young enough that neither one of you hasn't evolved into being just enough of the asshole you learn to be in your twenties in order to get ahead. I'm sure that's more appealing than figuring how the next grown woman is going to nag you and peck out your eyeballs in a way that's different from how the last one did. Who doesn't want a sex partner to be admiring and not a bitch-in-waiting? But you gotta do it the legal way. If it's even possible, here.

Once again, DUMMY. I commented on the post. Not the thread. No one who does this expects that anyone needs to read everyone else's fucking comment before commenting. On the times there are regularly thousands of comments per article. You are just being an assrat.

It was April (D"Bimbo's) comment that detailed the coercive nature of the texts. That stuff wasn't even in the News article.

Just stop being a douchebag. At this point you're now misinterpreting what my own comment was even about. Talk about a stalker...

John Nowak stalks me so much he's sort of like Anthony Weiner in that way. A gay Anthony Weiner. Anthony John Weiner Nowak.

I'd ask for a show of hands on who expects anyone to read every comment before commenting but John's just being a typical Republican and lying douchebag who obviously is new to the ethernets and just wants to find something to pretend to be all high and mighty about.

Sad situation, which Weiner caused himself. He had everything, but threw it away.

The entire area of being a convicted sex offender will trail him for life. It's a horrible designation that some do deserve. He will need to report to the police for the rest of his life to have a photo taken, be in a database with where he lives, and notify all his neighbors they now live next to a sex offender. He won't be allowed to live in some states within X feet of a school or church.

The designation can even apply to teens who sext each other from what I read in Reason Magazine. And you have 7th graders getting pregnant, as puberty has occurred at younger ages.

We have a strange society that glorifies teenage sexuality, yet has severe punishments for statutory rape and sexting involving minors.

The reason you now have more Women in the news for under age sex, Statutory Rape, is because laws changed so they now can be charged. Before it was not seen as criminal if the older adult was female. Females overall still don't get sentenced as harsh as men for statutory rape.

Ladies how do you feel about Huma Abedin being compared to Don Knotts? Brookzene was wondering.

I feel bad for her having her privacy destroyed by her "husband's" acts so that people feel free to make smirky, stupid jokes about their idea of her sex life. Her mistake was marrying him; his mistake ... probably was getting in bed with the Clintons. If he hadn't of done that he probably would mayor of NYC with 15 mistresses of an appropriate age. And nobody really caring.

I've been to jail for short periods for prolife protests. Is it hard to to have TV blaring and not be able to touch the channels because they are under the control of gang leaders? Is it hard to live with cinderblock all the time? Is it hard to eat limp lettuce, mystery meat, warm milk, Kool-Aid, jello and such - all the time? Is it hard to take a shower where the floor is slick with soap scum. Is it hard to sleep on greyish-white sheets? And the next day the same? Is it hard to be too hot in an upper bunk when the air-conditioning breaks down so that sleeping on the floor is preferable? Is it hard to have cockroaches run over you? Is hard to have blankets too thin to keep you nicely warm in winter? Is it hard to have nothing to do and nowhere to go? No, it isn't hard compared to the Lubianka or a Turkish jail. But it's hard for women in prison to have nothing but that day after day. Now Weiner probably will have a private room, his own TV, his own shower, immaculate sheets and --- nothing to do but contemplate the wreckage. In my opinion he will be doing hard time of his own kind.

"Then again, there's something to meeting someone when you're both young enough that neither one of you hasn't evolved into being just enough of the asshole you learn to be in your twenties in order to get ahead. I'm sure that's more appealing than figuring how the next grown woman is going to nag you and peck out your eyeballs in a way that's different from how the last one did."

But once again, for the record, a "perversion" occurs when someone uses something for a purpose other than that for which it was intended. The desire to have sex with post-pubertal females is not a perversion. Illegal, but not perverse. And I think that using a "smartphone" to send pictures of your dick is also well inside the design envelope. The fucking thing has a camera and an internet connection, and you can hold it in your hand. I suppose sending photos of your dick to post-pubertal females *instead* of having sex with them may be a perversion, but of what I am not sure.

"I blame Huma the Puma for all this sexual angst. If she had merely slept with her husband more often, it would have solved many of his problems, and he would not be texting 15 year old girls."

I think this is more true than most women will admit or accept. Not that it's her fault, but marriage has responsibilities, and when you don't fulfill them, you make it dysfunctional, and that makes bad things much more likely. If you don't want to have a lot of sex with someone, don't marry someone who likes a lot of sex. Same goes for travel, kids, communication, drinking, etc. Marriage forces your spouse to have only you to share certain things with. Don't rip them off, no bait and switch. Contracts should be followed, or shit gets ugly. She knew what she was getting - it was right in the name. That's honest advertising, and I bet he pretty up front about his sexual appetite. She wanted to be part of the power, and that's where he ripped her off.

I think this is more true than most women will admit or accept. Not that it's her fault, but marriage has responsibilities, and when you don't fulfill them, you make it dysfunctional, and that makes bad things much more likely. If you don't want to have a lot of sex with someone, don't marry someone who likes a lot of sex. Same goes for travel, kids, communication, drinking, etc. Marriage forces your spouse to have only you to share certain things with. Don't rip them off, no bait and switch. Contracts should be followed, or shit gets ugly. She knew what she was getting - it was right in the name. That's honest advertising, and I bet he pretty up front about his sexual appetite. She wanted to be part of the power, and that's where he ripped her off.

I don't disagree with your general thesis here, but the problem is that there is no evidence that they had this problem. There is tons of evidence that he is a pervert, a liar, and a person of generally low character. Lots of marriages are sexless, joyless, affectionless, etc, but they don't all end up this way.

J. Farmer - none of them have 15 as the age of consent, though, so what exactly is your point?

My point is exactly as I stated in my first comment: "No Anthony Weiner fan, but this doesn't really seem like a jailable offense to me. I know there are legalistic issues of "consent" when it comes to a minor, but is a 15-year-old really that much different than an 18-year-old in terms of sexual maturity?"

And you are saying that this should be legal.

I would not have a big problem with an age of consent of 15. Below that, though, I think it starts getting pretty dicey. Others, such as Camille Paglia, have advocated an age of consent of 14. But it's not exactly I am majorly concerned with. If nothing happened to the age of consent laws, I wouldn't particularly care. I was simply floating an idea.

The citizens of the US do not agree with you.

That's fine and has nothing to do with my argument. I do not believe prostitution should be illegal, and it isn't an argument to say the "citizens of the US do not agree" with me.

The burden on you is to explain WHY you believe this man, or any other adult, should have the right to engage in such behavior with an adolescent of this age?

I have explained multiple times in this thread why I think the way I do. There is a nebulous period between pre-pubescence and post-pubescence and drawing legalistic lines through it is a dicey game. For example, as I am sure we have all met, there are many 15-year-olds who are more mature and level-headed than many 19-year-olds. If a 40-year-old man uses manipulation to have consensual sex with a 19-year-old, no crime has been committed.

And to repeat another argument I made, something that is not appropriate or advisable does not necessarily have to be illegal or illegal to the degree that it involves nearly two years in prison. An example I gave earlier, a 60-year-old man in a relationship with an 18-year-old girl, while perfectly legal, is not what I would consider a healthy relationship. Similarly, a 15-year-old engaging in a sexualized way with an older person is not particularly healthy, but I am uneasy about making it a jailable offense.

If the girl was sexting with her 19-year-old boyfriend, he would still be a guilt of a crime, but I doubt there would be much sense of moral outrage. So I suppose ultimately my point is that these things need to be weighed on an individual basis taking individuals into account. Legally, though, I fully understand why we have to rely on arbitrary lines.

One. Anthony Weiner is now a registered sex offender which is exactly what he is if not worse. This is just what he got caught doing. We don't know that he wasn't grooming these girls for sex. He's a congressman he travels all over the world. What's he been doing in Germany or Thailand?

I think that if you dug with no regret for salaciousness you can find a lot of dirt on Capitol Hill and I don't know anybody I would feel like saving up there at the moment in either side. Milo got his career derailed for far far less, for discussing the ideas that we're discussing here, not for doing them like this excuse for a man. (I hope he's going to shul every day. I hope that he really fasts this Yom Kippur. This is a good time to seek forgiveness.)

2. If you want to base consent laws on Readiness to have sex, there should be some stage of development at which a teenager can be medically certified sexually ready. Perhaps it would be five years after the appearance of the first pubic hair. or 60 periods after menarche, whatever you think best, I don't know about these things lol. But some objective standard.

For same-sex pedophilia/ebephilia, which is really what the advocates are driving at, perhaps it matters less, because there will be no pregnancy or risk to future in a normal relationship, so, they figure, who cares?

I feel no sorrow for Weiner. His sentence is both just and merciful. I hope that he serves his full term. Let his experience serve as a useful lesson in instructing others in government and positions of power that their high estate does not protect them from the service of justice.When his term of imprisonment is completed and is completed; when restitution has been made to the young girl and to her family; and guilt has been acknowledged by [Weiner] and pence done; then and only then should compassion be offered to the convicted pervert.